1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thermally assisted magnetic head which enables high-density recording.
2. Related Background Art
As a means for achieving higher recording density in hard disk drives, a so-called thermally assisted magnetic recording scheme has been proposed, which uses a magnetic material having large KU as a recording medium, while heat is applied to the recording medium immediately before exerting a writing magnetic field, so as to effect writing with a lower coercivity.
Known as a thermally assisted magnetic head used in such a thermally assisted magnetic recording scheme is one in which a core layer and a cladding layer surrounding the core layer are provided within a slider, an electromagnetic coil device is laminated on the cladding layer, and a plasmon probe is provided on a medium-opposing surface of the core layer as in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-257753. Near-field light generated from the plasmon probe when light is supplied to the core layer and a magnetic field generated from a magnetic pole of the electromagnetic coil device perform writing to a medium.